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Montreal Canadiens Wiki
History of the Canadiens In Montreal, hockey is not just a sport it is a religion. Over the years the fans have worshipped many great stars dating back to the early days of Newsy Lalonde and Howie Morenz all the way down to the present day of P.K. Subban and Carey Price. The stars of the Habs have given the fans plenty to cheer for with 24 Stanley Cups including of 5 in a row in the 1950s and 4 in a row in the 1970s. Early Years *Le club Canadiens de Montreal was founded in 1909 and became a charter member of the National Hockey Association. They are the only NHL franchise that pre-dates the founding of the NHL in 1917. During their NHA days, the Habs we're led by stars such as Newsy Lalonde, Didier Pitre and Georges Vezina. They won the Stanley Cup in 1916 by defeating the Portland Rosebuds of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The reached the Stanley Cup final the following year but lost to the Seattle Metropolilitans. * In 1917, the Canadiens joined the newly formed National Hockey League. In the NHL's inugaural season, Montreal's Joe Malone set an NHL record by scoring 44 goals in only 20 games. His goals-per-game average of 2.20 from that season remains an NHL record. During the NHL's early years, the Ottawa Senators we're the dominate team in the league but les Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1924. The Habs reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1925 but lost to the Calgary Tigers. Howie Morenz joined the club in 1923 and became known as the NHL's first true superstar. Morenz was the NHL's all time leader in goals and points before he tragically from complications related to a broken leg he suffered on January 28th, 1937. The Habs won the Stanley Cup in 1930 and 1931 but fell on hard times for the next decade. They would not win another cup until 1944. Glory Years * In 1942, Maurice the Rocket Richard joined the Montreal Canadiens. Richard became widely as the greatest star in the history of the franchise. During the 1943-44 season, Richard was teamed with Elmer Lach and Toe Blake, they formed one of the greatest lines in the history of the NHL. Known as the Punch Line, they led the Canadiens to Stanley Cup victories in 1944 and 1946. In the 1944-45 season, Richard performed one of the great feats in NHL history by scoring 50 goals in 50 games. The Habs made the 1947 Stanley Cup Final but lost to the budding Toronto Maple Leafs dynasty. Prior to the 1946-47 season, the Canadiens hired former Maple Leafs executive Frank Selke as their General Manager. After suffering through the Maple Leafs dynasty which he helped create, Selke's Canadiens organization would go on to have greater success than any team in the history of the league. *The 1950's was the the most successful decade in the history of the franchise. From 1951 to 1960, the Canadiens never missed the Stanley Cup Final. Led by Richard, the Habs won the Stanley Cup in 1953 but lost 4 out of 5 cup finals between 1951 and 1955. Their loss in 1955 was tainted by a suspension to Richard at the end of the 1954-55 season which extended through the playoffs. The suspension caused riots in the streets of Montreal known as the Richard Riots. Prior to the 1955-56 season, the Canadiens hired Toe Blake as their new coach and he lead them to the greatest stretch in the history of the NHL. By the 1955-56 season, the Canadiens had assembled the greatest team in the league. The core of that team reads like a whose who of the Hockey Hall of Fame. At goaltender they had Jacques Plante, Doug Harvey was the leader of the defence corp. The offence was lead by a group of stars including Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bernie Geoffrion, Dickie Moore and Henri Richard. The Habs closed out the 1950s with the most dominant run in NHL history. They won 5 consecutive Stanley Cups from 1956 to 1960, a feat that has never been duplicated in the NHL. Maurice Richard retired at the end of the 1959-60 season as the NHL's all time leader in goals with 544. *The 1960s was another very successful decade in the history of the franchise. The core from the 1950s began to vanish with the exeption of Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard and Claude Provost. The Habs struggled through the early part of the decade but found their form by the mid 60s. The Canadiens made the Stanley Cup Finals 5 years in row from 1965 to 1969. They won 4 out of 5 of those Stanley Cups, losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1967 Final. The Habs were lead by captain Jean Beliveau with help from newcomers such as Yvan Cournoyer, Bobby Rousseau, Gilles Tremblay, Jacques Lemaire, Jean-Claude Tremblay and Jacques Laperriere. The Habs ended the decade on a sour note by missing the playoffs for the first time in 22 years at the end of the 1969-70 season. *The Habs continued to dominate throughout the 1970s. Heading into the 1971 playoffs, the Boston Bruins were the clear favourite to win the Stanley Cup. Led by Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, the defending Stanley Cup champions had just finished the most dominant regular season with 57 wins and 121 points. Led by rookie goaltender Ken Dryden, the Canadiens defeated the Big Bad Bruins in 7 games in the opening round. The Canadiens went on to defeat the Chicago Black Hawks in 7 games for yet another Stanley Cup. Jean Beliveau retired at the end of the 1970-71 season but with the first pick in the draft, the Canadiens selected Quebec junior star Guy Lafleur. Lafleur would go on to be the most dominate player of the mid to late 1970s. The Habs had some success in the early 1970's, they hired Scotty Bowman as their new head coach prior to the 1971-72 season and he went on to become the most successful coach in NHL history. The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1973 but they became a dominate force in the late 1970s. GM Sam Pollock assembled a roster that rivalled the great teams of the 1950s. At forward, the Canadiens were led by Guy Lafleur along with Jacques Lemaire, Steve Shutt, Pete Mahovlich and defensive specialist Bob Gainey. At defense, they were led by the Big 3 of Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe. Ken Dryden was the most dominant goaltender in the league during his years with the Habs. The Canadiens won 4 consecutive Stanley Cups between 1976 and 1979. The team was just as dominant during the regular season putting together seasons of 127 pts in 1975-76, 132 pts in 1976-77, 129 pts in 1977-78 and 115 pts in 1978-79. Guy Lafleur was the most dominant player of this era, he won 3 consecutive Art Ross trophies from 1975-78. He put up the the six best point totals in the history of the franchise from 1974-80. He remains the Canadiens all time leader in career Assists and Points. Post Glory Years *In 1978, Sam Pollock stepped down as the General Manager of the club. The Canadiens selected Irving Grundman as their new GM as opposed to the Pollock's hand picked replacement Scotty Bowman. Bowman left the organization after his first year working with Grundman, winning a 4th straight Stanley Cup in the process. The Habs have never returned to their level of excellence since that decision. Following the 1978-79, the Canadiens lost Ken Dryden, Jacques Lemaire and Yvan Cournoyer to retirement. The 1980 playoffs were hampered by injuries to key players such as Guy Lafleur as they lost to the Minnesota North Stars in the second round. In the 1980 draft, the Canadiens had the first pick in the draft. Grundman passed over Quebec junior star Denis Savard in favour of Doug Wickenheiser. Savard went on to have a Hall of Fame career with Chicago whereas Wickenheiser never developped into a good NHL player. The Habs struggled through the early 1980s, losing in the first round from 1981 to 1983. Grundman was fired after the 1982-83 season and replaced by Serge Savard. In the 1984 playoffs, the Habs, led by goaltender Steve Penney surprised many by reaching the Conference Finals before falling prey to the powerful New York Islanders. In 1986, the Canadiens headed into the playoffs with an average team with not much chance of success. Led by the great play of rookie goaltender Patrick Roy, the Canadiens surprised many by defeating the Calgary Flames to win yet another Stanley Cup. In 1989, the Canadiens had a powerful team with 115 points in the regular season and made it to the Stanley Cup Final. They lost the final to the Calgary Flames, allowing an opposing team to raise the Stanley Cup on Forum Ice for the first time in the team's history. *The 1990s began with a little spring cleaning from management. They traded troubled Norris winning defenceman Chris Chelios to Chicago and troubled forward Claude Lemieux to New Jersey for Denis Savard and Sylvain Turgeon. Chelios went on to win multiple Norris trophies in Chicago and Claude Lemieux won the Conn Smythe trophy in 1995 and became known as the one of the greatest playoff performers of all time. Savard's play quickly deteriorated in Montreal and Turgeon never had any success with the Canadiens. The early 90s were soured by multiple early playoff exits at the hands of the Boston Bruins. In 1993 the Habs, under new head coach Jacques Demers, finished 3rd in their division. In the first round of the playoffs they fell to 0-2 in their opening series against the Quebec Nordiques, they took the 3rd game into overtime and won the game. The Habs swept the rest of the series and continued the greatest overtime streak in NHL history. Led by the amazing play of Patrick Roy, the Canadiens won 10 consecutive overtime decisions. Due largely to their great overtime performances the Canadiens went on to defeat Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings and win their 24th Stanley Cup in club history. Patrick Roy was the clear choice for his second Conn Smythe award. In 1995, the Canadiens missed the playoffs for the first time since 1970. After a poor start to the 1995-96, the Canadiens fired coach Jacques Demers and GM Serge Savard and replaced them with Mario Tremblay and Rejean Houle respectively. Tremblay's first move as coach was to embarrass Patrick Roy to the point where he demanded a trade. Tremblay refused to allow Roy to the leave the net during a game where Roy was clearly struggling. The Canadiens lost to the Detroit Red Wing 11-1 with Roy giving up 9 goals. Roy demanded a trade and Houle's first major move was to make what is widely considered the worst trade in the history of the franchise. He traded Roy along with captain Mike Keane for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Rucinsky and Andrei Kovalenko. Roy went on to win multiple Stanley Cups in Colorado including the year he was traded whereas Montreal's players went on to have little to no success. Tremblay was fired after two seasons but Houle was allowed to bring the club down to levels of mediocrity not seen since the 1930s. Management allowed Houle to stay in power despite missing the playoffs for 2 consecutive seasons. He was finally fired early into the 2000-01 season but the Canadiens once again missed the playoffs due to largely to the lack of talent assembled by Rejean Houle. *The 2000s began with the dark ages of Rejean Houle but in 2001-02 the Canadiens finally made the playoffs for the first time 3 years. The team was carried largely by the great play of Jose Theodore. Theodore finished the season by winning the Vezina and the Hart Trophy. Going into the playoffs, the Canadiens received a boost from the return of captain Saku Koivu who was diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year. The Habs surprised many by defeating the Bruins in the first round but lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. Bob Gainey was made the GM prior to the 2003-04 season and the Habs had mild success making the playoffs on a regular but losing early in the playoffs every time. The 2007-08 regular season was success with the Canadiens winning their division for the first time since 1992. The Habs lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round after nearly blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Bruins in the first round. After a disapinting 2008-09 season, Gainey allowed many of his core player to walk away before making one of the worst trades in the history of the franchise. He traded prospect defenceman Ryan McDonaugh, Chris Higgins and Pavel Valentenko to the New York Rangers for Scott Gomez and Tom Pyatt. McDonaugh is currently developping into one of the top defenceman in the NHL whereas Gomez at 7 million a year, became the highest paid 4th line center in the history of the NHL. The Canadiens surprised many in the 2010 playoffs by deafeating the powerful Washington Capitals and defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh Penguins in the first two rounds. They were carried largely by the amazing play of goaltender Jaroslav Halak but lost in the third round to the Philadelphia Flyers. Gainey stepped down as GM midway through the 2009-10 season and was succeeded by his hand picked replacement Pierre Gauthier. After a first round exit in the 2011 playoffs, Gauthier led the Habs to an embarrassing 2011-12 season. They finished last in the Eastern Conference for the first time in their history. Gauthier was fired after the season and replaced with Marc Bergevin. Latest activity Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Find videos about your topic by exploring Wikia's Video Library. Category:Browse